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Will defeat at Everton derail Chelsea’s title bid?

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho did not believe that his team deserved to lose at Everton

Chelsea lost 1-0 at Everton’s Goodison Park yesterday, despite the Blues dominating possession and having 22 efforts on goal.

The visitors looked like the better side and blew a number of chances to find the target, much to the annoyance of boss Jose Mourinho.

Deserved

Chelsea may have had more of the game, but Everton deserved to win the game just for their spirit.

The Toffees produced a typical robust display and took their chance when it arrived. The Merseysider’s defended valiantly and kept out Chelsea’s very costly attack.

Confused

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho seemed to be unable to understand how his side lost the game. The Portuguese boss told Sky Sports: “I don’t know if I have to say we didn’t deserve to lose, or if I should say we deserved to lose.

“We didn’t deserve it (to lose) because we were the best team, because we play the best football, because we dominate the whole game, because we had 21 shots, because we risk everything we could…

“In that sense it is fair to say we deserved to win the game”

“But the other way, a team that has 21 shots, some of them easy shots and easy situations to score and we don’t score and we have a mistake in the last minute of the first half…

“Maybe with that I should say we deserve to lose.”

Underperformed

The Chelsea players underperformed at Goodison Park. Germany international Andre Schurrle missed some gilt-edged chances and did look good enough, while debutant Samuel Eto’o also missed some good chances.

The former-Barcelona star looked very rusty on his first Chelsea appearance and will have to improve his performances to stay in the team. Brazilian centre-back David Luiz looked unable to stay in position and will be exposed against more in-form strikers.

Even last season’s star performer Juan Mata had a quiet game and was substituted. The Spaniard is not yet up to pace with the Premier League and Jose Mourinho obviously does not seem to appreciate his ability.

Quality

Chelsea have had a slow start to the season in terms of performances, but their quality will shine through in the end. Chelsea have too much quality within their squad to carry on underperforming and Everton is a tough place to visit for opposition teams, even for such expensively assembled teams.

Ideas

Jose Mourinho is still trying to re-instil his ideas into his players. There is no doubt that the Portuguese boss needs time to get it right again at Stamford Bridge. This is not his team and certain players do not seem to fit in with the former-Real boss’ football ideas.

Juan Mata is a great player, but it seems that Mourinho does not see him as his sort of player. He may feel that the playmaker slows the game down at times and wants Chelsea to play at a higher tempo.

The signing of Willian seems to point to the fact Mourinho wants more pace within his team. Chelsea already had a stockpile of players capable of playing in the attacking midfield roles, yet Mourinho went out and brought in another one.

Stockpiled

This sounds like a strange thing to say, but Chelsea may just have too many players, especially in the attacking midfielder area. That means a constant rotation of the three attacking midfielders behind the lone striker.

The attacking midfielders will then not be able to build up any form, because they will never get a decent run of form in the team. Mata needs games to build up fitness and to hit top form. It seems that Mata could be the player that is left out of the team most out of the attacking midfielders.

Open

The race for the Premier League title is really open this season, but even after this defeat Chelsea remain one of the favourites, because of Mourinho’s presence in the Chelsea dugout and quality within the squad.

I have no doubts that results will improve under the Portuguese. This was probably a blip, but performances will have to improve if Chelsea are going to be successful this season.